On January 15, 2014 Arts & Dreams kicked off the first of a 7 workshop series with middle school youth at the Red Hook Initiative in Red Hook, Brooklyn. First up, Affirmation Paintings. We began a discussion on what it means to love yourself, and how challenging that can be. We talked about paying attention to our thoughts and focusing on the ones that feel good. We learned about positive affirmations: loving, kind sentences that we can think or say to give ourselves a boost. After a simple breathing exercise we all painted positive affirmations with acrylic paint on stretched canvas. The creativity in the room was inspiring. Then we talked about why we painted the words and images we did, said loving affirmations while looking into our own eyes in a mirror, and gave ourselves a big round of applause. Thanks for having us, RHI! We are so excited to see you all again next week!